When opportunity knocks, open gently.
The prompt is:
THAT PESKY CROW
The tower was believed to be impregnable. The first two stories’ faux windows were backed by brick as thick and solid as the exterior walls. And if they were breached, all that the invaders would find was a pit that would drop them into the farthest depths of the earth.
Ladders laid against the sides would simply sink into the quicksand mote hugging the tower on two sides. The other two sides were built flush with the cliff that dropped three hundred feet to the raging river below.
All these fortifications and booby-traps were designed to protect one thing. The one thing the king considered the most precious treasure in the world—his daughter.
When the king prepared to go off to war, he had his Court Engineer build the tower and his Court Magician enchant it to provide never-ending food, water, and a magical story book for his ten-year-old. Ever since her mother, the Queen, died giving him his only heir, he not only ensured her safety, but provided every one of her heart’s desires. Part of that safety was the well-kept secret of the tower, its location, and her very existence.
So, ten years passed after the king died in battle and his kingdom fell into chaos before Geoffrey, the late Court Engineer’s son, finally found the tower and the Queen held captive there. When his father told him about the tower, he swore him to secrecy and refused to reveal its location.
With his father’s legacy guidance, Geoffrey scaled the wall’s hidden handholds and knocked on the Queen’s window. Thinking it was the pesky crow who came every day to beg for bread, she threw open the window, which struck Geoffrey square in the forehead. Tumbling backwards, he hit the quicksand with a splat and sank.
THE END
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